IMO there are some things that don't involve much of a legal requirement. Things like a conversation with the student's parent/guardian. The counselor could call the student in to talk. But even then, while the counselor might have a note that said a student planned on doing "something stupid", without the counselor ALSO having those video's (or that note including more detail than the media suggests), the counselor might not have any idea that it COULD be more than a plan to streak the homecoming game.

While the school talking to the parents about the potential "something stupid" might help, it certainly isn't something decisive or that is in any way guaranteed to prevent a criminal act. And, while the media will certainly play the hindsight game, it becomes a lot harder to blame the counselor when we limit ourselves to JUST what the counselor actually knew beforehand.

In this particular case, there were multiple warning signs...but was even the combination of them enough to legally justify some sort of intervention (and if so, of what degree)? It would seem that... more

And the student was even suspended pending a psych eval... But those steps STILL did not prevent the act... Taking me back to my original question of what steps COULD the school theoretically have... more

While it probably isn't feasible from a case by case basis, in that it probably isn't possible to get metal detectors put in RAPIDLY based on a single potential threat like the note from the kid in... more